Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,

recently I’ve been seeing a lot more rangers in tpvp/spvp. Is this just a pre-rush of the september patch? And guys are just shaking off rust? Or has something already been implemeted that buffed rangers?

Up until now they were almost non existent. If I ever lost a fight against them, it was clear that the other guy had to be much more skilled and had to outplay me to kill me. When it came to same skill level matchups, I’ve won all no matter what. (I play thief, guard and warri.)

But what I’m starting to see is that the ranger class seems to be more balanced. And now its a fair fight on equal skill level too. Actually I’ve been killed by guys who had around the same experience in pvp as I do.

Its not a QQ thread, I’m not calling for nerfing them back down again or anything. It’s just that – according to my experiences – they have become a potent class again in pvp, and the time has come when I actually have to take a good look on the class to be able to kill it.

So it’d nice if you told me what that change was. Or more specificly – what is this longbow-trap build that I run into recently. The wolf hit like a truck, they have nice heals also. But thats all I’ve been able ti find out on my own.

So pls dear rangers, help me to learn how to kill you.

p.s.: If there was no change, then well… I must be sucking when it comes to dueling rangers. Funny I’ve never experienced this before.

Frenk.5917:

mid – bunker guard, dps engi (dunno which spec) or a hambow, and me as the 3rd

It all depends on this. If the guy takes the DPS engi, your team would benefit more from a warrior, otherwise if that guy takes Hambow, an elementalist would be the most appropriate choice.

Plain and simple, ty for the answer.

Hello,

here’s the first topic I created about this issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Mid-fighter-classes/first#post4257471

But i’m still in hesitation.

My first attempt to find a class that I like and is viable at the same time was playing a dps guardian. With this spec: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR5dlsApaodDxcI8DNR8AVVAweKb5/X/jgkDA-TJRGwAAeCAJuIAg2fAaZAA
It’s from Tyreal.5230’s guide (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Empowering-Wrath-8-DPS-Build-Stella-Alamarr/first)

Survivability is good, dmg is good. But what I find missing is CC. GS #5 is just not enough. Slow, too long CD, relatively easy to dodge (many times it doesnt matter because the clutter will prevent your enemies to see the animation in time to dodge). And it just annoys me that many times I cannot really do too much to help rezzes/stomps be it offensive or defensive. This is probably the reason why I hardly see dps guardians on top teams, only bunkers. Switching greatsword for hammer sounds a little better but is still inferior to warrior hammer abilities. Their AoE stun is just godly compared to the guardian hammer abilities. Their knockback hits multiple targets while your Banish hits only one, and can easily be soakeed up by AI or an other player, resulting you not being able to interrupt a rez/stomp. And the list goes on… So all in all my problem is that as a dps guardian I dont feel I have enough CCs.

My first question is: Can changing my spec, weapons solve this problem, or should I just forget dps guardian in general? We dont really have a guy who would reliably be online whenever we play. So our usual setup looks like this:

homepoint – always turret engi
roamer – always thief
mid – bunker guard, dps engi (dunno which spec) or a hambow, and me as the 3rd

So with this in mind – necro, warri and ele remain as possibilites. I really didnt want to play hambow (or any other warri spec), because everyone and their grandmother plays a warrior. Therefore any1 who is just a little serious about pvp knows warriors. Plus the telegraphed skills a warrior has… Even though a warrior is easy to play on low lvl pvp, as your opponents get better; playing a warrior actually gets harder and harder as you move up on the leaderboard.

But my recent experiences tell me that maybe I should still try. In the chaos of a crowded battle on a capture point, telegraphed abilities dont lose that much potential.

You can say I still have necro and ele as options, but… If we see and ele or necro in a team fight, we always focus them first over warriors or guards. (Unless the necro seems tanky.) And I suspect that the same fate would await me if I rolled and ele or necro. Although I tried D/D celestial ele, and I loved it.

Sry for going on for so long like this, but you probably also know that this is quite a detailed question to wrap one’s head around it.

So should I go warri or ele? Which one would fit our team setup better?

Ty

Ristillath.6745:

Ever thought of when Anet introduce 2-3 more gamemodes or just one, there aren’t enough players anymore in one gamemode.
PvP has not that many players, if there is more than just one gamemode the number of players is half in every gamemode.
Imagine the queuetimes, and not to mention the matchmaking.

What you say is true, but at the same time it would have an opposite effect too. Namely that for an ideal and balanced 5v5 you need 10 players of the same skill level. For a 2v2, only 4.

An other promising idea could be making games 10v10 or even 15v15. In that case one team losing a member would not be in so big disadvantage. Because as the team size increases – the loss of one player means smaller and smaller portion of the team’s overall performance.

Ofc, the core of this issue is that many players play this game only occasionally. And they hardly meet the requirements of the PvE realm. Let alone being succesful in pvp. And they dont like to be defeated. Some have more fun facerolling/speedrunning trivial pve content and feeling godly. Rather than getting killed 2-5 times in a 15 min game. I have guild members like that. He knows all the boss mechanics by heart, reads all the gw2 lore, has his own farming paths, has all professions at lvl80, contless sets of asc gear, etc. And he refuses to set foot even in WvW zerging. He just loves the feeling of grinding trough underpowered, dumb mobs, and thats it. He is not ashamed, or trying to hide his potential incompetecy when it comes to pvp. Its just his thing, he plays gw2 to do that content. And the majority of players will always be like this. PvP is challenging. There are a few who like this a.k.a. the ‘pvp community’, but there is always more who despise pvp. But hey whats new with this? Its like this in every single MMO. Anet should have known this way before the first idea ever came around to create gw2… Make it a pve only game then. Or if not, then let the pvp community have their fun too. But Anet probably makes more money on a new armor skin, than on the whole pvp community…

The community has needs, and they provide the corresponding service. Our only hope is that high end pvp (tournaments) are much more attractive than any living story update. Dragons, shiny cinematics, new world bosses can never possibly attract enough attention compared to an ‘all-star’ tournament. So I really do hope that Anet’s marketing needs will evetually force them to dedicate more attention to pvp.

Keep these threads coming, maybe it will have some effect in the long run. Forum moderators should wake up to this every day until they fix it.

Hehe, your opening and closing lines always make me laugh.

On topic: Probably your solution is the only solution. There are stupid things when it comes to your teammates decisions, experience, situational awareness, etc. But I can handle those and accept them. Everyone should have the right to play pvp – regardless of skill level. I am a noob in many respects still. But the stupid soloq system doubles/triples the annoyance. Equal skill level teams! Thats the only solution imho. And Anet pls, if a guy leaves after 1 minute, put the team to the front of the queue system and replace the player. This never happens if there’s a 4v5, it will stay a 4v5…

Make 2v2, 3v3 brackets. Introduce simple death matches, ‘capture the flag’ matches, whatever… There is just so much potential to improve the pvp experience of this game. I wonder why Anet doesnt give a kitten about this… I really do. Are they so busy making the living world story?

I mean will it ever be fixed? I’m currently 86% rated in soloq. How come there is a player in every single game who plays his 1st or 5th game at best? I asked them, and they told me. Its not some conclusion I’ve come to because they played bad. And out of the 9 matches I played tonight 5 was 4v5 and every single time the low level guy left. I understand that they wanted to try out pvp, got in a match where the experienced players stomped them 3-4 times in the first 2 minutes of the game, they got mad and left. But shouldnt they be in lower brackets then? (Thats an other thing that I was so unlucky to be on the team with 4 players every single time. I’ll have a chat with God about the luck part of things.) WTH is matchmaking rating good for then? Dont tell me that there are not enough players – lets say – from 78-98% who queue up for soloq in the peak hours. This ‘take 1 low, 2 average and 2 high rated players and make a team’ attitude is just stupid. Probably they do this to make sure that you get in games fast, and dont have to wait until 9 other guys come around from around the same spot you are at in the leaderboard. So 3 from there, 4 from there and an other 3 from here and the team is ‘ready’. This results in unfair matchups 85-90% of the time. Even if I win I hardly have a truly sweet victory. Sometimes I’m on the winning side of a 4v5, sometimes its just so ridiculously unbalanced (in my team’s favor) that I feel guilty to fight back at all. And maybe 15-20% of the games I play has some real excitement where both sides have a chance to win. Therefore your actions MATTER, and can ALTER THE END RESTULT. Playing some actually exciting and competitive games (everyone on their own skill level) is well worth the 10/15/20 minutes of waiting instead of waiting 5 minutes but having 75-80% of your games garbage, worthless, annoying and non-competitive.

Make teams of equal skill level!!!

p.s.: I know, I know… Anet wont do S[H[I[T about this, there have been a lot of moaning and crying about this very valid issue and they didnt care. I just had to let the steam out. Save me, invite me to your pvp team.

Thank you guys for the answers, I’ll use them next time. What was strange to me is that not only did he take very little dmg, but he was dishing out a lot at the same time. My HP went down like crazy. On one occasion a warrior came up to help. I was in downed state and about to get stomped when he teleported up. He feared the necro and started rezzing me. I was around 95% HP when the fear expired, he dropped some red circles on me and started a new stomp. In that 3-4 second the warrior could not fill up my remaining 5% HP… not only that but I fell back to 65-70% HP while he was uninterruptedly rezzing me. Not even on my thief can I out-dps rezzing by this much. An other cluse was that I am usually able to outheal high dps classes. Like if a thief jumps on me and I fail to dodge backstab or a warrior can do his full stunlock combo because I’m out of CDs; it takes me to 10-20% HP. But then I use some healing skills and my HP climbs back up. They used their CDs, I survived, so its my turn. This is a typical scenario if I eat a burst. But the thing with this necro was, that even if I survived his initial burst; the insane dmg kept coming after that too. I started suspecting that maybe a venom-share thief was amongst those minions whom I didnt notice. But looking at the combat log I only saw minions names and occasinally the necro himself here and there. Wurm spit 1-1,2k, golem auto attack 1,8-2k, etc. Anyways it was insane… and a good lesson. :P

So a skyhammer story…

I got my guardian knock-back build in-case soloq gives me that map. I usually go for the cannon. I mostly do ok, as I know the classes with knockbacks and stuff. So those who usually go for the cannon therefore I’m likely to fight. Long story short, I’ve encountered an MM necro. And I got kitten d over and over again. Actually I’ve never met them up there before even though I played 400+ games overall. The guys health didnt drop, no matter what I did. Maybe it was at 70% once out of my 6-7 tries to kill him. It was so embarassing. Why I think its not only a l2p issue is the fact that in any other environment I have no problem with them. I didnt even look into MM necros’ gameplay in detail, because I didnt feel I needed to know more. I play a thief as a main and guard+ele as alts for pvp. I’m no superstar or super skilled or anything (around 88% solo rating and 95-96% team) but no matter how I was defeated before, nothing seemed to be farther to achieve than actually killing this necro dude up there at the cannon.

It probably has to do something with the small space that is available to fight at the cannon. So kiting or LoSing the minions does not work well. I run a triple-med build, so quite a lot of condi cleanses, but I still had at least 3-4 on me all the time regardless. So is it only the small space or a necro build thats even cheesier than the standard MM build? Or has it taken 400+ games to fight the first skilled MM necro ever? I’m just so angry and embarrassed – it was literally like a kitten , I could not touch him. Help me stop my crying pls.

Well I added him to my friends list. I’ll check if he comes online or not. Him being offline for a few days still wont mean that its because of my reporting, but at least will give me some clue.

Is it against the rules to publicly share his name? I’m a 100000% sure its not a false accusation from me, so giving him a bad reputation without any basis to it is not a possibility.

Thank god its not a game-breaking issue… FIX THE kitten IMMOB-BUG INSTEAD!))

Anyways, thx guys.

Hello,

here and there I got scammed in-game, reported on all occasions; yet I dont see any consequence of it. I never got my money returned, never seen a player getting banned or anything. So is the ‘report’ option only for helping you release your anger – thinking now you took revenge for the scam – but having no real effect? Prbly Anet wont hurt any potential gem-buyers’ feelings just cuz some1 got scammed and is now mad at that person. Or will they? Your in-game gold is worth nothing for them, keeping a potential buyer (being banned or ordered to give the money back could be quite an incentive to quit GW2) does. Any experiences?

Ok, maybe I was too trigger-happy to create this topic…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Champion_Risen_Plague_Carrier

However I’m still not 100% sure as there are no details about the mob’s ability such as radius or damage. Either way its stupid.

Hello guys

so what the hell is this? I often see it in my combat log when playing PvE. And I get this message in different group events. I do Teq the most so when I noticed this happening first I thought its from the big dudes that walk around, become invuln. when reaching 0% HP and then explode into a poison field. You know this too, you’ve seen it many times.

But I was wrong, because this happened to me several times when there were no mobs around. I get this even when im like 600-1000 units away from any mob. I get it during temple events, or any open world event for that matter (story journal events too – just been 1-shot in an Iron Marches event this morning). I can see nothing being casted at me, I see no mob targetting me… And all of a sudden, BANG I’m 1-shot from full HP. This ‘explosion’ hits me for 19k+ all the time, sometimes 50k+ according to the combat log.

So is this some common ability that various trash mobs have? Or is this a bug? I never see red circles, telegraphed abilities or even anything around me. Its getting really annoying.

Thx for the help

Ty for the advice. I’m not that high rated (around 93%), but I could stand my ground quite well. I’ve played some pve on my ele so I’m not totally noob, but in my first ever PvP match I won all my 1v1s. I guess I was only lucky and got easy opponents, but its still fairly ok considering I have zero experience in pvp with ele. So this seems to be a rather forgiving build.

Is this btw just a starter build until one gets the hang of it or is this build preferable in more competitive environment as well? Should I keep other specs in mind too or is this celestial D/D build good all the way?

Thx again

p.s.: Do you get a temporarily lower rating if you start playing a new class? That would make my little story laughable…

Hello guys,

I was watching Zoose’s stream the other day and he was chatting with a guy telling him that staff and D/D ele are the two easiest specs to play. (Scepter builds require you to be able to set up and execute combos, which may not be the best solution for a beginner – as far as I know.) So with this in mind – what do you suggest I should start learning ele with? I will only play soloq in the beginning, so the build must be suitable for self-reliant gameplay. I’d also like to ask what role should I go for? Roamer or mid-fighter? (Maybe homepoint defender?) If this approach makes sense at all in soloq…

Ty

Just what i’ve been looking for. Ty so much!

Hello guys,

first I’d like to ask an off-topic question: the base support build is only the 0/1/6/6/1 or 0/1/1/6/6 is fine too?

And then cut to the cheese… so for dps role is the triple-meditation build with zerk amulet the only option? I tried triple-med build with 0/1/6/1/6 (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAS7flsApaolDxbI8DRRDBld8z/9tBnrPQCCAA-TJBHwAGuIAAeCAd2fwZZAA). But was told by my teammates to play hambow for that role. And that my support skills would only overlap our celestial guard’s skills, and warrior does more dmg. Any viable condi builds? I’m suspecting that the answe is a general NO, as in high-lvl pvp I only see support guards.

My last question: how is a homepoint defender spec different from a mid-fighter support spec? Using soldier amulet instead of cleric? Or skipping traits like ‘Alturistic healing’ as you’ll mostly fight 1vX or maybe with one teammate?

ty

Roe.3679:

Eles, necros, guardians and warriors will be the best options, with warriors and eles probably being the best at dealing dps and guardians the best with support. Necros will get focused but a well positioned necro can do a lot of damage too.

Ok, I’ll keep this in mind. I’m kind of tunnel visioned on my thief, and I need some refreshment and new fun. Ty

Hello,

so which classes are good/best for that spot? Hambow is the most common as far as I know, but what else. I tried triple-med guard with soldier amulet int and battle sigils, hammer+Sc/Torch. (Torch 4 and hammer 2 work fine with int sigils.) But I did not find it bursty enough. So is hambow the ultimate spec for this role or can engies/necros take that role too? Maybe guard with a different spec? I shall I stick to this triple-med spec, and just learn to play it better?

Anyways, I want to wreak havoc in the middle.

Ty

(http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAS7flsApaolDxbI8DRRDBld8z/9tBnrPQCCAA-TJBHwAGuIAAeCAd2fwZZAA)

Oh thx Grimezy, such a detailed answer! It will surely save me. Thx again!

Thats what I was thinking of, but I have no idea how to hurt my dps the least in the process.

Hello,

first of all I’d like to state very clearly, that I dont think eles suck at PvE or anything. My problem is a l2p issue, so I’m seeking help.

I main a thief, have a guard as 1st alt and just dinged 80 on my ele. And guess what I usually spend more time downed than alive.

(Skip this part if you dont like storytelling/walls of text.)

Both on my guard and thief I have a wide variety of survival skills in their best dps build. For the thief it means running with 3 sigils or 2 sigils and Haste. One sigil is a stunbreak, one is a condi removal. On weapon skills I have pistol whip that provides evades and spamming it is the core move of a S/P build. So using it does not hurt my dps. With D/D I have death blossom for evades which is bad for a power build but you still do dmg while evading. On top of that you can drop aggro with CnD. For a 12-18% dps loss I can go 5/6/0/3/0 instead of 6/6/0/0/2 and get some extra dodges and HP in return. So even in glasscannon spec I have quite a few moves to sav myslef from dying.

On the guard, I wont even start listing survival abilities… still all available with the highest dps build or for a reasonable dps loss.

However on my ele… I’m usually expected to run with Scepter (+Dagger or Focus) and LH spec. There are a few alternative specs to run that build, but none of them comes close to thief/guard survival.

My problems:

All my utilities are a must to have: ArW, Conjure LH, Crit sigil. On top of that the healing skill (ArBr) is used to blast your firefields usually resulting in unwanted overheal, and therefore mostly being on CD when I really need healing. I may switch out that sigil for some defensive utility skill, and can replace ArW with ArSh (not a blast finisher, but at least triggers the ArLi trait. But this is the best I could come up with. But this is still somewhat weak, because the defensive abilities have long CDs. Even if I run with the spec that requires you to be in water attunement (5 (II-V) / 4 (VI-VII) / 0 / 5 (IV-VI) / 0) sucks. As you dont have the HP pool of a warrior, you’ll be 1shot even if you have that health regen from water traits. Moreover you spend quite some time wielding the LH that has only 2 defensive spells that are not too effective and have long CDs. The launch only effects one target, and the stunning circle only works if mobs try to go through it. So when corner zerging, it wont stun anything.

All in all, most of my time is spent in fire attunement or water and wielding LH. I have no utilities to help my survival, and only a few situational weapon skills with fairly high CDs. While on my other toons I have a wide variety of dodges, blocks, blinds, interrupts all in their best dps build; on my ele I hardly have anything. So how do I stay alive? Or what would be an alternative trait/unility choice for Sc+Hammer that can still stack some might? I also find it really hard to keep up my dps rotation. On my guard/thief I have a lot less complex rotation to do dps. And if I get interrupted I can restart it fairly easily. However, when it comes to the ele… there is no point in using your balst finishers if you missed your firefield for some reason. Also if you pick up LH and you get downed, you lose it. Again screwing up your rotation. I feel like the ideal dps rotation and surviving at the same time is only possible when attacking training dummies…

Obviously it is not the case as I see a lot of amazing things can be done on an ele. But I’m just so far away from that. After (almost) learning how to survive on my thief in 35+ fractals, I thought there wont be a single thing in PvE that will be harder. Well… I was wrong.

Is there a spec that can aid me through this learning process? Or should I just keep dying until i get the hang of it?

Thx for the help.

Ok lets narrow things down a little, I may get an answer then.

1. Air + Fire sigils or Generosity/Blood instead of fire?

2. Ogre or eagle runes?

Ty

Hello,

my first question is about sigils. Should I just go Air+Fire both ob SB and D/P? Sigil of Generosity or Sigil of Blood look tempting, however I dont know whether they outperform the double proc combo or not. 60% of the time I play soloq, so I cannot rely on teammate cleanses or heals.

My second question is about runes. Ogre runes somewhat seem to be a common consensus for D/P. On the damage side its ok, but what annoys me is that the kitten dog reveales my location quite often. And thats how they know if I’m still around or not after using my shadow refuge and stuff. Only switched back 4 days ago from S/D – as I got bored – and I already had 10+ occasions when I only died because of the dog. Is this something I’ll have to live with, because the dmg increase from ogre runes is just too great to give up? Or are there reasonable alternatives for D/P? I was thinking about:

1. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Vampirism

Is the lifesteal proc enough to allow me to switch to Air + Fire sigils on the weapons? Or do I need none of those?

2. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Scholar

Just be over confident and never expect my HP to drop below 90%?

3. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Mesmer

That extra daze duration does not seem to be gamebreaking, though I’d still list this for the sake of nice dmg increasing stats.

4. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Eagle

Not much to say about this…

5. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Infiltration

Nice, nice… but how am I gonna get them below 50%?

And probably there’s not many options left. So does any of these work, or shall I just kitten and l2p with ogre runes?

(Dont forget to answer the sigil question too! :P )

Ty

MLGKorno.5419:

Several others have stated in this thread that they don’t want to see Caed make a video about “how to play DP” and were instantly labelled by his nearsighted followers as Haters/trolls which is quite sad.

Says the one who called me a troll right when he joined the conversation… Somehow it always turns out that those who are in top tier of gw2 pvp are no-lifers. Respect to the exceptions! But the hate that arose here clearly leads me to think that the motivation for being a good player at this game mostly comes from the frustration of being a sucker in real life. I dont want to be a kitten or anything but if any1 can come up with a better explanation, its welcome. Lets see how this conversation unfolded:

Caed offers the community that he’d write a guide for D/P.

3rd post Mindtrick starts the trolling/hating. —> ‘Hit 5 stand in field hit 2 repeat’

Mblech continues… —> ’ So… Make a guide for the simplest, and arguably, most hated build in the game?

Haha. Guide away. The game is already in the gutter.’

PhDusk —> ‘Teach me your ways Caed sempai sama kun.’

Then the conversation takes a civilized course and some discussion starts.

And after that, it really get hectic… Like ppl claiming D/D, D/P, S/D being a no-skill/ mindless-spam specs AT THE SAME TIME. Trying to put down Caed as there is no need to make a guide for a brainless class like thief. Cuz all thief specs are just too easy… I dont know if its possible to put more contradiction into a conversation than into this one. (MM necros, hambow, PU mesmer are far easier btw – thats common knowledge.)

1. Guides are for noobies or mediocre players. Just cuz you are a top dog, dont act like the king of the hill and hate on others because they plan to make a guide on a ‘simple’ class like thief.

2. When higher rated players expect respect for thier opinion, but at the same time are diametrically opposed to eachother’s approach to the game – what do you expect the community to think? According to your ranking you are all knowledgeable players, yet what you say is just a big contradiction (like all weapon sets are ‘the easiest’ to play… well maybe one, but not all, cuz then whats the point in comparison). What do you think it tells about your credibility and motives? Cuz if you all looked at reality and didnt want to turn this into a ‘whos kitten’s bigger’ issue, at least partially – your opinions would match. So all you claiming yourself to be a good player, yet not having a single common point in your arguement; seem kinda silly to me. You dont care about the truth, you just want to say something that no1 said before, hoping it makes you look smart.

So grow up pls, and let Caed make his guide for the noobies like myself. You can still be a kitten in mapchat. Or well… try that university application this year again, there’s no way you gonna fail 5 times in a row, trust me!

ConRae.3526:

Nimrud.5642:

I’m really hoping D/P will be buffed soon

What part of it do you think needs buffed? D/P is still strong in the right hands, it might not need to be buffed, but other specs need to be toned down a bit in certain areas.

Condi removal for one. And a little dmg increase would fix it imho. There’s a reason why S/D became ‘the meta’. Blind and stealth are still inferior to endless evades though. But that can be made up with practice and skill. I think D/P lacks only minor things, but too many of them. I really like the gamble feeling with such a squishy toon, but more dmg should come in return. Now you almost have to work as much for a kill as an S/D thief but you have a lot less survivability. This is my noobie opinion.

I’m voting for it too. Ignore the haters. They are lazy to do it themselves, so they troll.

I’m really hoping D/P will be buffed soon – so making this guide becomes an un-wasted effort. Who knows what the nerf/buff-rollercoaster brings us after the next turn.

I think the answer to this dilemma is the same as for every other spvp realted issues: money. ANET’s money comes from the PvE community mostly. Moreover half (if not more) of the pvp community is below and will never go above the minimal level of understanding the game mechanics, so their perception of the pvp experience is heavily biased. And maybe 5% of the gw2 community has a properly established insight on pvp. Well… Anet does not give a kitty about that 5%. And they should not. As for all other business, profit is the most important thing. So they will only spend money and effort on things that the majority cares about. And they dont care about reality. They care about how players percieve the game experience. And if that does not match reality… they couldnt care less. Their job is to make ppl pay at the gemstore. Not to serve the needs of a tiny fraction of the gw2 community.

Thats why certain things wont ever be fixed. Dont be a wishful thinker.

Hello guys,

can the corresponding achievements be completed after 15th July? I really feel like doing something else atm, but I dont want to miss the rewards/achievements either. So am I in an emergency – having not completed a single achievement except the unlocking?

Ty

Imho the problem hides somwhere else, and the frustration that makes you feel mad is not directly from ‘bad luck’ and/or ‘anet does not care about pvp’ and/or ‘broken MMR system’ etc…

My personal frustration comes from the feeling of helplessness. That there are too many factors out of my reach. I never start crying right in the beginning of a game if we are 4v5. I find it a great challange – but when it only brings me unwinnable fights (1v2, 1v3, etc.) it makes me wanna rip my hair out. I’m not close to anything spectacular, my highest ranking was around 93% so I didnt even make it to the numbered spots. Sometimes I get into matches where I’m a complete beast, ripping through everyone I encounter, winning all 1v1s and winning all even matchups (2v2, 3v3, etc.), and even some outnumbered situations – without dying once. Sometimes I get to games where I get stomped even by (non-existing) critters on the map. Even though the first case is a little better, but that does not make me feel good either. Playing guys much higher or lower than you removes any excitement. And you cant control that, its just how matchmaking works. 6-7 of my games are always above or below my skill lvl by a lot. So I hardly get to play in an environment that can be called competitive compared to my skill level, and my score can hardly be called ‘representative’.

Then there is skyhammer, 4v5, afkers, dc-ed ppl… All the negative factors even out in the long run I know. The problem is that they disconnect your skill and efforts from your score. And these factors take a good 80-90% percent of your actual score/rank. The top players who manage to keep their spots up there still only have access to that 10-20% and have to depend on luck for the rest. Thats why you never see their win ratio being double than the – lets say – top300 players’. They may win 5-10-15% more games than others, but thats it. If the scoreboard was truly representative, top players had much higher win ratios. They also get overwhelmed by factors out of their control. And the very few situations where team-comp, 4v5, noobs, etc. do not destroy their chances of winning can their skills shine. But those situations only yield a slight adventage in win ratio. Its like out of a hundred games 85 gets decided by coin-toss, and you only get to play 15 that are not based on luck.

So all in all: HELPLESSNESS. That is the feeling that takes over you when you are in that 85%. (And that includes won games too btw, when I feel like I could have been afking all game and we still would have win the match.) Only that 15% keeps the pvp spirit alive in me, where every move matters. How fast you get to a capture point? Do you know all the teleports on the map? Did you win your 1v1 5 sec faster than an enemy player did on an other key-point? Is it gonna give you that 497-500 win? Unfortunately I hardly ever get to a situation where the answers to the above questions matter at all…

Hello,

do these pop their heads every once and a while or once the corresponding world events end, they are no longer attainable and will never be? I really like the Dwayna and Lyssa one (only have Grenth LOL – God sure has a good sense of humor) – but I have other priorities before spending 300+ gold on a backpiece when I can get Spinal Blades for cheap (the crafting cost isnt that bad, but the recipes themselves are a little too much for my taste).

So I gotta make a decision: Will I go on with my ascended gear farm (I play thief, guard and ele extensively and I’m kind of halfway to fully get them decked out in ascended gear.) or will I make a little pause and spend money on these? Stat-wise its a no brainer (I’m looking at you Spinal Blades.). However if the recipes would no longer be attainable, their already high prices would skyrocket. And in that case it’d still be wiser to suspend my ascended farming and buy the recipes now, while they are only this expensive?

ty

Ty guys, you pretty much covered all I need to know.

Yep, I got LW at 500 (crafted one spinal blades backpiece already). Got enough blade shards too. So I’ll just buy the back skin.

The Dwayna back however, must be crafted as there is no other way to get that skin.

ty once more

Hello,

I have 2 questions regarding ascended backpieces:

1. Are the spinal blades the cheapest (fractal back excluded) to get berserker stats? I want a backpiece with lightning-/windcatcher skin so the original look doesnt matter only the stats. Or do the ‘catcher’ skins come with stat choice?

2. Not so long ago I saw some rants about ‘Light of Dwayna’ is now too easy to get via PvP. Probably it has to do something with the not so long ago introduced reward tracks. So how can you spare money to get this back item? Or is that the ‘Wings of Dwayna’ bow and not the backpiece?

Ty

Hello,

my ele just hit 80 and I’m planning to do the regular temple/world boss/living world event farming on her until I get the hang of the lvl80 gameplay and the time comes to see some harder content. My priorities are: mobility >>> support > damage. So I’ve come up with this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFUQFAWhUMqc25w6Bf0ADAC5rLTGMwgixDD-TBBXgAAK/C1R0r+zjSQA-e

Still somewhat self-centered but offers a lot of support.

Then here’s the ‘full support’ version:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFUQFAWhUMaZW5w6Bf0ADAG5lwRIJGKAUNOEGA-TBBXgAAK/C1R0r+zjSQA-e

I do realize that 5 points in Arcane Power (Arcane Precision) is quite useless in big fights where bosses are already ‘capped-out’ on conditions. I took that 5th point only for the increased boon duration.

Oh and I dont want to switch up the meta sigils/runes and zerker gear. I’m not into building a support ele for PvE (as all support build for PvE are considered unviable in times of zerker gear superiority). This would just be a temporary practice build while I’m still learning the basic mechanics. For WvW, dungeons, etc. I’ll use different builds ofc.

So are there any major flaws? Such as choosing cantrips and conjured weapons as utilities. Or am I missing trait combos that are a must for a support build? I dont need a super-finetuned build yet, I just want to make sure that I dont start my journey from a wrong basis to becoming a good ele.

ty

Yesterday evening I joined a lvl38 fractal group, to put my ‘new’ build to the test. After the loading screen all I see is: ‘Lol, 4 signets!’ and insta kick. :P I think life is telling me something here.

Anyways, I’ve completed a lvl 29 after that with no problems. So there is still hope.

Ty once more!

twoscoops.6913:

@OP 15 pts in Acrobatics is a nice comfort zone and most thieves have been there at some point and time. But yeah, if you care about personnal dps – and it seems you do – lose the crutch!

You’re missing out on a lot of good bonuses: +50 power, sweet sweet grandmaster traits from the 1st line (reaveled training, improvisation) and a +5% damage modifier. This adds up to about 12% when using revealed training and 18% when using ele conjured weapons with improvisation. Your estimates were pretty spot on gg.

Now what do you actually gain from 15 pts in Acro? Against trash mobs, you don’t need to dodge because S/P is OP. Against bosses you’ll be running D/D which has built in Endurance regen which should be enough. Need extra dodges fast? Pop signet of agility. Or slot Withdraw as a heal for dodge-heavy fights (great heal per second). See? You’ll come to realize you don’t REALLY need that extra dodge. Sure it’s nice but…

I’m not a special player and I pug using 6-6-0-0-2 all the time. I don’t die more than others. All the guys I play with also use that build. Most pugs don’t because most pugs play bad builds. The only times I switch to 5-6-0-3-0 are pug lupi, mossman and mai trin.

All right then… Dear meta, here I come! Just make sure to instantly kick me if you see my name in the LFG tab. :P Unless ofc you still need the ‘Combat Healer’ title.

ty

Hello,

I know, I know… ‘too small sample size’. This is the answer to all salvage-rate rants. BUT shouldnt the sample size be only that big that one player has a chance to complete within a few months of gameplay? Example: From item ‘A’ the salvage rate is 50% to item ‘B’. Meaning that all across all servers out of the gazillion-trillion-million item salvages gazillion-trillion-million x 0.5 new items get created. But for the poor fella who only salvages a few hundred or thousand items theoretically the salvage rate can be 0% if some1 else has the same number of attempts but 100% success rate. So ofc there is some kind of sample size cap. I observed these caps, and once I’ve reached them I ended up with the salvage rate that gw2wiki states for ectos for example. But that took me over ~2000 salvages. And there were surprisingly long lucky/unlucky streaks.

WTH does this have to do with Globs of dark matter? Well, in case of G.o.D.M. its quite hard to reach a proper sample size. As you need a lot less of them.

So either this (^^) or some salvage kit bug causes me to have a 15% salvage rate when it comes to G.o.D.M. My longest unlucky streak was 27 so far, and I’m 134/897 overall which is really low… :S

So shall I just accept this? Or will the salvage-rate evetually even out? Or should I go only for weapons and ignore armor a jewels? Should I switch to BL kits instead of master/mystic?

Evalia.7103:

Nimrud.5642:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mighty_Infusion

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Versatile_Mighty_Infusion

These are extremely expensive. I’ve considered myself an elitist up until I saw the ingredients for these. Does buying them give any significant improvement, or are they only gold sinks?

PvE – gold sinks, 70 stat points won’t matter.
WvW infusions – very helpful(for wvw ofc), not that pricy either.
Scholar is worse than strength by far.. Same damage as strength >90%, guess what <90%. Oh and also pls trait that gives might on signet activation? if you pve..

I am not questioning your good intent, but ‘same dmg as str’ is not true as far as I know. Or maybe you’ve meant WvW or spvp. The required uptime varies from spec to spec, but around 60% uptime Scholar beats Strength. But this is for the meta build. The only reason I thought that Str runes may be better for me was the 3points in acro and power of interia.

As for the might on signet activation… This is the D/D meta:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQJAoYl8MpwpVOxxJsPNRLRtdHsBfgXnh2XQAEiA-e

if fury and might is an issue, you still better off with this spec:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQJAoYl8MpwpVOxxJsPNRLRtdI0BfgXvh2XQAEiA-e

And if you are still keen on some signet trait, Signet Use is better according to the almighty masters of thief math. Unless you spec for bursting CoF P1 endboss…

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Always valuate your build in terms of what groups you will run with, if you mostly pug, any content you find harder, 3pts in acro is better than sligtly more dps. I use 6/6/0/0/2 and 3 signets unless the group needs some utility. 5/6/0/3/0 only for CoE since I pug all the time. Those few times I was lucky to get dps group that knew what they were doing, I didn’t really need those extra dodges.

Imo, scholar is better for thieves than strength, especially since most might stacks in a groups are provided by eles.

The infusions, well, for pve only, they are a nice addition to your dps. If you however Wvw as well, you’d lose the additional +/- 1% to guard dmg. You can equip 2 same rings (to have might infusion on both) if one is infused and other the regular version.

I’d say I pug 50% of the time, but even in guild runs I lack the max 25 stacks of might, so overcapping is hardly an issue. However I’m 90+% HP most of the time, as in high lvl fracs its either this or you are dead and there aren’t many options in between the two. Low HP pool and medium armor as you know…

Anyways, is there a way to quantify the difference between 6/6/0/0/2 and 5/6/0/3/0? 5% or 10% rather? Even more? And talking about quantifying – how much dmg does that 70 AP translate into? I’m suspecting that having simple infusions and running with the 5/6/0/3/0 build results in 12-18% dps loss compared to the meta. But this is only a gut feeling, I have no clue how to back it up matemathically. Is that still a fair ‘calculation’?

I just would like to know if its worth the struggle to learn to survive with the meta spec.

ty

p.s.: Oh btw, for a thief to cover all offensive slot on all your gear takes 15 infusions if I’m not mistaken. And 8 versatile for defensive slots. Offensive costs around 57g each, defensive costs around 160g each – calculating with buy orders. That means a whooping 2100-2150g depending on current prices. Thats what I meant by insane. Basically a semi-popular legendary’s price…

Hello,

(Skip to the 2nd paragraph, unless you like reading personal stuff.) I’m a somewhat noobie, somewhat experienced player. Started playing last december. Got all dungeons except aetherblade. Fracs up to 40, full zerker ascended, etc. Not something extraordinary, but not your average Joe either. Anyways, its not a self esteem or evaluation thread; I’m only writing this to inform you about the frames of my knowledge about the game.

So far I’ve been using this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQNAsaVl8MpwpVOxxJsPNxLBtdzrwG0dBBovoA-ThBBABScAFwa/R5HAnCgAeSBVq+zZKBDAgAYiTciTciTsJOxJOxJOxA-e

This is the S/P version ofc, but I think the trait choices are obvious for other weapons as well. (Combined Training —> Dagger Training etc…) I sometimes switch to the 6/6/0/0/2 meta build for fights like Rasbovich or Subject Alpha, last boss of Uncategorized Fractal, etc. where I know I wont need that many dodges. But generally 70-80% of the harder PvE content feels much better to complete with the 5/6/0/3/0 build. Not to mention that it enables me to survive with 3 signets and I dont need to ‘waste’ utility slots for Shadowstep, -refuge and the likes. I also take Power of Interia when running the dodgy build (Descent of Shadows at Snowblind frac last boss).

So all in all? How far is this putting me behind the meta build in terms of dps? Is any1 actually running the meta build with 3 signets or 2 + Haste? (The latter is really the sitting duck build of gw2.) And IF this build is not stupid, then would it be better to use Strength runes (Power of Interia) or are Scholar runes still superior?

Ty

p.s.: I also wanted to ask about the most expensive 70 attack pwr of the game:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mighty_Infusion

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Versatile_Mighty_Infusion

These are extremely expensive. I’ve considered myself an elitist up until I saw the ingredients for these. Does buying them give any significant improvement, or are they only gold sinks?

Duke Nukem.6783:

Afya.5842:

I don’t get the problem. For higher value items, they sell slow, always. Often in days. But if you price it right, it will eventually sell. What would be sold in days will still be sold in days even if someone undercut you.

For low value items, they moves fast, people undercut frequently. But a copper in such case could worth 10% profit. If people choose to earn less, it’s their choice.

If there are many people undercut the item, pushing you back and back and never able to sell, that indicates a large supply. Price drop is inevitable in this case. And your sale order simply became overpriced.

lets get back on track from people’s market advice to the actual issue at hand, i dont care how prices move faster or slower i just want to be able to pick from which seller i buy from, even if i pick the one that is more expensive that should be my choice

So you just want to do ‘harm’ to those nasty 1c undercutters? This issue definitely needs to be examined by the devs. The more you try to back your point the more ridiculous it gets. Im sorry if this is offensive to you, but you should have realized a long time ago that you are beating a dead horse. Do business only with vendor npcs, thats all I can suggest.

Duke Nukem.6783:

…the person who listed it is just a jerk not a skilled market tactician, a jerk.

Haters will hate…

I’m still failing to see how it is different than any other leagal money making practice. FYI: if you observe the daily price-fluctuation of the items you intend to sell, and you list it a few percent below the expected daily high – with the right timing – you will sell it 100% of the time. And the whole undercutting issue becomes irrelevant. See? If you list it at 4am, go to sleep and are mad the next day that you’ve been undercut… thats not the fault of the guy who undecut you. Nor is it the system’s fault. You just made a bad decision, and now blame it on the ‘undercutting jerks’.

You still havent done your homework, yet you educate others. And yes, making money @ TP takes a ‘skilled and talented TP player’. It requires research, dedication, effort, time, etc. If you want to make sure you sell your stuff and no1 undercuts you, try visiting an in-game vendor. They always have a fixed price…

I dont mean to look super-wise or anything, but I’d suggest to move a few steps back from this exact issue.

What is undercutting? Its ‘a tool to make money’ could be one definition. Is it the only tool by which people make money on the TP? No. Its the most obvious, but not the only one. And whats the problem with it? Many feel that if others use this tool, it prevents them from making money or lowers their profits. But there are many other ways to make money on the TP. If you want to prevent people from using the 1c undercut routine, then – along the same lines – you should implement other regulation to prevent hoarding, flipping, placing buy orders, etc. too. Just because those other tools are not so obvious, they still have their effects on the economy.

Second thing is, if you introduce a new system, it will have different kind of ‘flaws’ (or rather tricks). Which will be used by the smarter part of the gw2 community again – putting the average Joe in disadvantage.

When it comes to fracs or high-end tpvp, no1 complains that ‘I should be up there with the greatest’. Or ‘you should let me do this lvl 46 frac with you guys, even though I only have green armor and have no clue about the fights’. Still when it comes to using the TP, everyone – regardless of knowledge and invested effort – demands the same trading potential as the hardcore traders. And then comes the argument ‘But they make 50-200g a day and they spend hours @ TP. I just drop in, list my stuff in 2 minutes and only want to make a few gold.’ Its the same as saying ‘I dont pvp a lot, just a few minutes a day. But in that five minutes I want to have the same potential as … (your favourite player’s name).

Imho ‘fixing’ this undercutting issue would not solve a thing. If you dont invest money, dont do your homework, and dont spend time @ the TP; you wont make a lot of money. Simple as that. In every other area of the game, its quite obvious to people and they dont complain (that much —> ‘nerf thiefz asap’ ). I just dont get it, why it bothers peeps when it comes to the TP.

Oh I see, ty. I was wondering about starting to stack up the corresponding mats, but then it can wait a little longer.

Forgive my ignorance pls, but when does this go live?

Ty guys. Probably I’ll need a full zerker set for the 1/0/0/6/6 S/D build and I’ll make some Soldier armor (or trinket or weapon – depending on the random loot I get from fracs and whatnot) for the 1/0/6/0/6 D/P build. I tend to play them both.

Anyways, you’ve helped a lot. Ty.

We all know that Zerker gear is the basis and you add survivability according to your spec’s requirements or your own liking. But I’m unsure how exactly that is done.

So whats the best? Soldier, Valk or Knight? Toughness or Vitality? If the 67% crit chance cap is real, then Valk seems to be the best (if you reach 47% + Fury, you are pretty much crit-capped. But have a lot more HP, than Zerker.). I’ve seen threads where different stat combinations and their effective HP were compared. Yishis’ build (Valk), some guy with Soldier and an other with the combination of Knight+Soldier. They all were between 21800-23000 effective HP and the difference between offensive stats was even smaller. However the Soldier gear set was the winner in both categories. Is this still the case?

Hello,

I was just wondering if anything has changed about untility infusions lately. The latest thing I know (which is still months old) is that dungeon boss gold drops have been nerfed or are no longer affected by this infusion. So that leaves karma and MF on the table. Which would tell me to use the karma infusion where you get a lot of karma but dont kill that many mobs (Shatterer, Golem, Ciderspire, etc.). And use the MF infusion when theres a lot of mobs dying that drop loot (Teq, Dwayna pre-events, Baltha pre-events, etc.). But I’m not so sure about the flawlessness of this course of thinking, so any correction is welcome.

What I’m even more uncertain about are fracs. Does the karmic infusion also effect relic drops? Or shall I just go with MF or agony if I need more?

Ty

All right, we got a winner: Crittina Sassin. And in-return for the kind help, I’m sharing with you her most secret photos. (FYI, gossip newspaper editors would kill for these.)Just to let you know, to whom you’ve helped giving name. So heres he goes: